Tag: Critical Race Theory

Why Is CRT So Damn Important?

A subject that gets little coverage these day….so who better than me to resurrect the subject.

We all have heard about the Critical Race Theory (CRT)…..ever wonder why this obscure issue has become so damn important in our political discourse?

Red States are spending an inordinate amount of time trying to prevent the teaching of CRT…..the catch is this waste of time is seldom taught and when it is it is a class for law degree.

Like my state of Mississippi…..

The same Mississippi Legislature that proclaimed racial reconciliation after removing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag nearly two years ago passed a bill Thursday to limit how race can be discussed in classrooms. Several Black legislators said during the six-hour debate that the bill could squelch honest discussion about the harmful effects of racism because parents could complain if history lessons make white children uncomfortable. The Republican-controlled House voted 75-43 to pass Senate Bill 2113. It will go to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has pledged to sign it into law, the AP reports. All House votes for the bill on Thursday came from white Republicans.

The bill’s short title says it would prohibit “critical race theory.” But the main text of the bill does not mention or define the theory, and many supporters of the bill also have said they cannot define it. The bill says no school, community college or university could teach that any “sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.” Democratic Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson said she has been told by some colleagues that the bill does nothing substantial but it gives them a talking point at election time. “Censoring teachers, dismantling education bit by bit, attempting to erase the past, refusing to acknowledge the hurt and the horror and the heinous acts that have been done to my people and then hiding behind this ‘inferior versus superior’ argument—that’s what this bill will do,” Summers said.

No legislators gave speeches in support of the bill. Republican Rep. Joey Hood of Ackerman, who is white, did not define critical race theory as he explained the bill Thursday. “History will continue to be taught—American history, Civil War history, Mississippi history,” Hood said. When the bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate in January, all of the Black senators withheld their votes and walked out in protest. Critical race theory is an academic framework that examines how racism has shaped public policy and institutions such as the legal system, and how those have perpetuated the dominance of white people in society. State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said critical race theory is not taught in Mississippi schools. The University of Mississippi law school offers an elective class on the theory.

Well after all the energy spent by numerous state legislative bodies…..we know that it is banned from being taught to our children….but why is this?

My state would not surprise me if they started a campaign to ban the US Constitution….I wouldn’t be surprised if the Constitution itself is ultimately banned in states like Mississippi because if students are permitted to read the 3/5s & fugitive slave clauses it will become clear to them that the principles of America’s founding included the idea of people as property.

Texas (go figure) has yet another bill  before the legislature about teaching CRT….

Texas college and university professors may soon lose tenure if they teach critical race theory (CRT) in their classrooms, according to the Lone Star state’s lieutenant governor, who has vowed action by the state.

In a warning message to educators this week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he will work to strip them of their job security in the state if they teach CRT.

“The critical race theory people are trying to take us back to a divided country,” Patrick told reporters at a press conference.

“Tenure to these professors who voted 41-5 telling the taxpayers and the parents and the legislature, and your own board of regents, to get out of their business that we have no say what you do in the classroom… You’ve opened the door for this issue because you went too far.”

“What we will propose to do is to end all tenure for all new hires,” Patrick said, vowing that the state legislature would take action against those who teach the subject in their classrooms.

“The law will change to say teaching critical race theory is prima facie evidence for good cause for tenure revocation,” he said. In addition to his comments concerning tenure, Patrick said he wants annual reviews for the professors rather than six year reviews.

(FOX News)

Then there is yet another of those ‘go figure’ states that has tried to limit the teaching of race….Georgia (the state not the country)

Legislation prohibiting Georgia schools from teaching nine racial and ethnic concepts it defines as divisive has passed the state Senate. The bill cleared 32-20 on Friday, CNN reports, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats no, and goes next to the House. The measure also would apply to training in state agencies. Republicans in other states are pursuing similar legislation. The movement was sparked by the uproar over “critical race theory,” which isn’t taught in Georgia schools anyway, per WXIA.

The prohibited concepts include that one race or ethnicity is inherently superior to another and that the US and Georgia are “fundamentally or systemically racist.” It specifies that teachers would not be allowed to make students feel demeaned or guilty because of their race, skin color or ethnicity. The legislature has four similar bills before it, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This one would withhold up to 10% of schools’ funding for violations. Colleges and universities also could be docked, but the bill doesn’t specify how much. Another bill would penalize schools up to 20% of their funding.

The sponsor of one of them said history could still be taught but teachers would not be allowed to include their political beliefs. GOP Rep. Bill Wade said he worked with school board and teacher groups on the bill, but they’ve said they’re opposed to his bill. “All this bill does is muzzle our teachers and make them into a straw man for political gain from the true divisive voices in our communities,” said Democratic Rep. Matthew Wilson, a former elementary teacher. “This bill is whiter than the paper it’s printed on,” said the lawmaker, who is white.

These idiots are doing exact what they claim the CRT is doing…..dividing the country.

What are these people so afraid of would be the next logical question….

Maybe there is a good answer after all…..

What nobody is talking about, though, is the why of this particular issue at this particular time. As a result, we’re mistaking the tool for the goal.

Moral panics, when driven by politicians, are usually just tools. This CRT moral panic is a tool being used by a coalition of interests to achieve their own goals, none of which have anything to do with teaching or not-teaching the history of race in America.

  • Imagine you’re part of a group of libertarian billionaires who don’t believe in public education and who see any such sort of taxpayer-funded effort to improve “the underclasses” as an absurd waste of the tax dollars you “worked so hard to earn” and the “gummint” now wants to take away from you “at the barrel of a gun.”
  • Imagine you’re a leader in the Republican Party who’s seeing the average age of the Fox audience — 70 — as a threat to your own political longevity because old white people don’t go into politics and you need 30- and 40-year-olds to learn their basic political skills locally (like on a school board) so you can groom and propel them up into state or federal politics.
  • Imagine you’re a multimillionaire white evangelical preacher who’s looking for an issue you can use to more tightly bind your congregation — your donors — to you by portraying yourself as a crusader who’s going to save their children from a horrible fate.
  • Imagine you’re a white supremacist militia leader who’s looking to expand his base by bringing in white middle-class adults and therefore you need an issue to get yourself into the headlines “taking on authorities” but that won’t also end with you going to jail.
  • Imagine you’re a Republican politician who’s looking at a serious challenge in the upcoming primary elections and you need an issue that’ll be both popular and energizing for your base voters, even if the larger population doesn’t much care, because base voters are all you care about in the upcoming primary.

https://www.rawstory.com/a-disparate-group-of-billionaires-republicans-televangelists-and-white-supremacists-has-found-common-cause/

There you have your answer….it is a wedge issue that does nothing but create chaos and confusion……and these are the two issues that the GOP excel at giving the people of this country.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Damn Critical Race Theory

Recently there has been an issue that has made the GOP lose their ever-loving minds….that issue is Critical Race Theory…..state after Red State has spent energy and time passing bills the ban the teaching of CRT in their schools.

Lots of controversy has grown up around this issue…..my state of Mississippi has been one of those states that is running scared of anything thing that will shine the light of truth on our history.

I thought that since this issue seems to be so damn important to the GOP in Mississippi I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about…..

Here is the truth about CRT in Mississippi….this is what a student at the University of Mississippi found out about this issue being taught in our schools……

“Critical Race Theory: Law 743” is an unusual course at the University of Mississippi Law School, where most classes teach students about the law or how to argue like lawyers. What makes Law 743 unique is that it teaches a bird’s eye view of the legal system, a framework for understanding the law and its impact on racial minorities. Law 743 is also more diverse than many classes at UM’s law school. In the 13-person class, Murphree is one of four white students. 

Out of all her courses this semester, Murphree was the most anxious to see what Law 743 would be like. On the first day, the professor, Yvette Butler, issued a disclaimer that Murphree took to heart. Critical race theory, Butler said, examines difficult and potentially upsetting topics, but it was important that the class remain a safe, respectful space. Students were going to disagree with the readings and with each other; when they did, Butler asked them to give each other “radical acceptance.”

When Murphree started her readings later that day, she pushed herself to keep an open mind. One of her first assignments was a 1976 article by a professor at Harvard Law School named Derrick Bell, who is often credited as the founder of critical race theory.

In the article, titled “Serving Two Masters,” Bell lays the groundwork for one of his most notable arguments: By and large, school desegregation was a failure. Brown v. Board of Education, he argues, was in many ways harmful to Black communities across the country. As Black schools closed, Black teachers, principals, bus drivers and custodians lost their jobs. Bussed to white schools, Black children were more likely to be beaten, arrested, and expelled than their white peers. As a lawyer for the NAACP, Bell had sued for desegregation; in “Serving Two Masters,” he was wondering if that was the right tactic after all.

https://mississippitoday.org/2022/02/02/mississippi-only-critical-race-theory/

There you have it….the only place this issue was taught was in a law school setting…..and yet the GOP is afraid the rest of us may learn about it.

You tell me why they made this a thing of such importance.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Whose Afraid Of Critical Race?

GOP/Repubs/conservatives that’s who…..and especially old white people….but then  the GOP has always been afraid of history.

If they are a Right winger then they all are running in a panic over this issue.

For those that spend their time worrying about the Kardashians are doing let set your mind in motion…..

Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.

The basic tenets of critical race theory, or CRT, emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Richard Delgado, among others.

Look for this issue to be a major diversion for Repubs in the 2022 election. But just why are the Repubs so afraid of this theory?

People like that idiot from Arkansas, Tom Cotton…..

Speaking at an online forum sponsored by the conservative Heritage Foundation, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) slammed what he says is the military’s incorporation of critical race theory, saying it will create division among soldiers.

https://www.rawstory.com/tom-cotton-2653630053/

Then there is the disturbing prophecy from Megyan Kelly Show….

“It was bad enough when they were indoctrinating college students, but college students tend to be more left-leaning, and their experimenting with ideas, and I think once rationality sets in, they tend to make up their own minds one way in the other,” Kelly said.

“But now, we’re seeing in today’s day and ages, they’re infecting — and forget corporate America, that’s already spread, sports and so on — but they’re infecting kids. Young children, they’re indoctrinating with these divisive messages. Our military! And then those things — it’s abuse towards children, and it’s endangering the men and women in the military, and our country as a result.”

(mediate.com)

What is it about CRT that has conservatives so babbling upset?

A recent poll tries to explain their concern.

The survey of 1,592 U.S. adults, which was conducted from June 22 to 24, set out to determine how closely the public’s opinion of the term “critical race theory” aligns with a central idea behind it. To do that, Yahoo News and YouGov asked respondents whether they’d “heard of critical race theory” — and followed up with the ones who had heard of it by asking if “critical race theory is something students should be exposed to in school.”

It turns out only about half of Americans (52 percent) are even familiar with the term “critical race theory,” according to the poll, and political engagement is likely to account for that exposure. As Time magazine reported in a recent cover story, “conservative advocacy groups, legal organizations and state legislatures” have “mounted a campaign to weaponize” the term because they believe that “fighting it will be a winning electoral message.”

As a result, awareness is much higher among white Americans who identify as conservative (71 percent) or liberal (70 percent) than it is among white moderates (48 percent), African Americans (42 percent) or Latino Americans (39 percent).

https://news.yahoo.com/poll-the-real-reason-republicans-are-so-riled-up-about-critical-race-theory-090015052.html

Indoctrination?

That small minded idiot from Arkansas got his way and with the help of the d/bag Dem, Manchin….

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the “Stop CRT Act” in an effort to prevent tax dollars from being used to teach the controversial set of ideas in public school classrooms.

“They want to teach our children that America is not a good nation but a racist nation. Those teachings are wrong and our tax dollars should not support them,” Cotton said ahead of the vote. “My amendment will ensure that federal funds aren’t used to indoctrinate children as young as pre-K to hate America.”

All Senate Democrats voted against the ban, aside from West Virginia moderate Joe Manchin, who gave the GOP the vote it needed to successfully pass the amendment during series of votes late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/senate-passed-cotton-amendment-ban-federal-dollars-funding-critical-race-theory

Good to see that Manchin found his footing on this so he can stay in the spotlight….for me he is a worthless lump of manure….

But why is the GOP denying our past?

The hoods are off, and Republicans are embracing the white supremacist “replacement theory.”

If you’re dismissing this as fear-mongering or click-bait, you probably missed Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and renowned adulterer, espousing replacement theory rhetoric on Fox News earlier this week while talking to host Maria Baritromo, who always has time to offer a platform to dangerous conspiracy peddling. Speaking about Mexican immigrants coming to America during the pandemic, Gingrich said the “radical left” wants to “get rid of the rest of us” and would “love to drown traditional, classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law.”

He wasn’t talking about Donald Trump, notorious for being historically ignorant and profoundly incurious, but about those of us with darker skin, who are never seen as “traditional” or “classic” or “real Americans.” Gingrich, a craven political opportunist, parroted the talking points associated with “the great replacement” theory, also known as “white genocide,” which stipulates the white race and “Western civilization” are in dire threat of being weakened and ultimately usurped by immigrants of color, Muslims, feminists, and gays.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-racist-theory-that-inspired-murderers-is-now-gop-dogma

Like I have stated….GOP is running scared.

CRT should be a major election campaign and the use of indoctrination will be the new word for the 2022 elections…..(seems we must have a new slogan for ever election…and now 2022 has its own)

For me I believe that history should not be taught sanitized….we should be given all our history…..the good, the bad and the ugly.

But why all the hoopla around CRT?

Few Americans can define what critical race theory actually is — an academic framework that originated among legal scholars in the 1970s to help explain how racism permeates American institutions — but it’s not surprising that it has emerged as a bogeyman on the political right. Increasingly, the Republican base is politically animated by white racial grievances, which is a major reason why misrepresentations of critical race theory — “every white person is racist” or “certain children are inherently bad people because of their skin color” — have found such a receptive audience. After all, many of the same grievances helped fuel Trump’s rise. 

From the earliest days of his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s support has been most heavily concentrated among white Americans who think they face significant racial discrimination. In fact, perceived anti-white discrimination powerfully predicted voter preferences in the 2016 general election. One survey conducted shortly after the election found Trump voters were over four times more likely than Clinton voters to say white Americans face “a lot” of discrimination (45 percent versus 10 percent, respectively); other polls also consistently showed that Republicans and Trump’s 2016 supporters saw racial discrimination against white people as a bigger problem than unfair treatment of racial and ethnic minorities in American society. Those views have only grown more pronounced in Republican politics. 

How The Rise Of White Identity Politics Explains The Fight Over Critical Race Theory

Most have NO idea what CRT is or why it is important other than the lies and misinformation spread by self-serving d/bags in the GOP.

History needs to be taught whether you like the story or not….to deny our history is to deny who we are as Americans.

Any thoughts?

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

‘Hallelujah Amen America Is Best Ever Hawk Eagle Patriot Apple Pie Act.’

Or as the official name of the bill, Love America Act, should be changed to the above title.

This bill has been introduced by Missouri’s insurrectionist, Josh Hawley……and his attempt to stop the teaching of the Critical Race Theory…..in other words an attempt to re-write history…revisionism at its best.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is the latest conservative politician to take the culture wars to the schools. On Thursday, Hawley announced that he will introduce a bill that bans critical race theory and requires schools to teach kids about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence. Schools that violate the “Love America Act” will lose federal funding.

“The Left wants to teach our kids that America is systemically racist. That’s false and it’s meant to divide. It’s time to replace lies with the truth!” Hawley tweeted. “Let’s teach our kids what unites us as Americans – what we love together. Let’s teach them the truth,” he added.

The internet is not here for it. The Love America Act was widely panned online, in part because schools already teach about the nation’s founding (some might say exhaustively). And partly because primary schools do not teach critical race theory, an academic theory that examines United States law and history through a lens that includes the influence of slavery and systemic racism. It’s mostly taught at law schools and universities.

Conservatives have nevertheless made critical race theory, often abbreviated to simply “CRT,” a primary front in their war against what they view as excessive wokeness. In their view, it’s racist to teach about racism.

The Love America Act is among more than a dozen pieces of legislation targeting critical race theory in schools at the state level, NBC News reports.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/josh-hawley-love-america-act-mocked/

Keep in mind that Hawley was one of the Congresspeople that basically cheered on the insurrection of 06 January…

Like the rest of the GOP they hate the Constitution and what it stands for…..and will work to misinform our children at every opportunity.

These types of slugs need to be removed from all positions of influence….

All history needs to be taught……the good, the bad and especially the ugly.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–22Jul21

Another from the files of ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’………

It seems that there is a black conservative that thinks that slavery was not about racism…..

A Black conservative YouTuber who went viral late last month slamming Critical Race Theory during a school board meeting appeared on Fox News this Tuesday and gave a questionable perspective on the history of slavery.

“Nobody wants to get the real history of [slavery],” Ty Smith said. “America was not founded on racism.”

Smith did acknowledge that slavery was a real thing — but he insisted that it wasn’t about racism despite the fact that all slaves in the United States were Black.

“Don’t get me wrong — there was slavery going on, but slavery itself initially was not a racist thing,” he said. “It never was about race initially, so to sit there and take it like America was founded on racism is a complete lie. Yeah, there was slavery going on, but slavery was going on in all the world. It never was a race thing, so why are we making it a race thing now?”

(rawstory.com)

Seriously?

How much does he make from the GOP and the RNC?

It has got to be a money thing for him to deny history…..he can be bought.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”